Tag: UCIOA

UCIOA (HOA) revisions in the works

The Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA) and Uniform Condominium Act (UCA) are currently in draft mode. (Essentially, they are being treated as one). As a model for states to adopt as their HOA laws, UCIOA was first introduced in 1982 and currently has 9 states adopting some version of UCIOA and some 14 states adopting UCA, the uniform condo act.

Among the changes being considered are amendments to governing documents (§1-206), owners and duties of the association (§3-102), executive board members and officers (§3-103), voting and ballots (§3-110), and assessments (§3-115).

A meeting of the drafting committee will be held this Friday and Saturday, April 3 & 4. The committee consists of lawyers generally appointed by their state Governor. Invited to attend are persons who have indicated an interest in the workings of the committee, designated as Observers. Observers are expected to contribute to the discussion of the issues and can submit amendments for consideration. Sort of like a citizen submitting a proposed bill to his legislator.

Not to be surprised, former CAI president and active NJ CAI member David Ramsey is an Observer.

In 2008, in response to David Kahne’s AARP paper on HOA member rights and the works of others including political scientists, a Member Bill of Rights was adopted as a separate add-on to UCIOA. It never took off. And still the ULC (Uniform Law Commission) has not revisited constitutional protections for members in spite of several bills advancing those rights in 3 states.

Read more about the objectives and purpose of ULC.

CAI attorney stalwart defends HOA Land private constitutions and so-called bill of rights

The CAI stalwarts once again responding to my challenge to defend the constitutionality and legal status of the HOA legal scheme, including the highly questionable assertion of a “consent to agree” under the constructive notice doctrine.  This time, dedicated CAI stalwart Beth Grimm enters the arena with her August 2012 e-newsletter, What’s new in HOA Land . . .  The topic is, “Homeowners Bill of Rights.”

From the very start she informs her readers, in a round-about way, that there are no federal or state constitutions applicable to HOA private agreements.  I’ve been saying that for years!  And she points out that, “Without A Constitution What Is a Bill of Rights Worth?”  Grimm continues in what must be taken as a joke, in full agreement with the comment by Bill Davis, with a quote from Thomas Jefferson about the need for a bill of rights after admitting there is no HOA constitution.  

It appears that the reader is entering the realm of the attorney “word-game,”  where long established concepts and meanings are distorted to suit the attorney’s private agenda.  It’s an indoctrination and propaganda tactic. Welcome to Newspeak.

In strict legal terms, the assertion by Grimm that the governing documents are the HOA’s constitution is not correct.   But the courts have upheld the CC&RS as if they were just like a political constitution and interpreted them as a de facto constitution.  And as I have tried to explain, state laws like the California Davis-Stirling Act, the UCIOA acts, and other state HOA “Acts” serve as a parallel code of public laws applicable at the local government level to the class of nonprofit private governments called HOAs. 

The courts have also applied public government attributes, conditions and rights to these private contracts that are not contained in the explicit CC&RS covenants, and have applied overly broad interpretations as to what the members have agreed to without their signature – just by simply taking their deed in hand.  In other words, the activist courts are imputing a “consent to agree” that does not exist in the CC&RS. And nobody warns the unsuspecting homeowner of the consequences of reaching out for that deed. Nobody!

A host of reputed rights are then examined by Grimm, but they read more like the documents of the Rights and Responsibilities of members (a document first used to explain what a democracy is all about and how citizens are to act;[i] and a publication of CAI Central). It is in stark contrast to the preamble to the US Bill of Rights, emphasis added,

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

This long time CAI stalwart attorney does not address the constitutional concerns raised in my The Truth in HOAs Disclosure Agreement, nor does she call for CAI to conduct such a poll. There is no support for my Declaration of US and State Citizenship. Grimm’s presentation misses this important point.

Nor does she mention that back in the 2008 – 2009 the California Law Review Commission’s attempt to rewrite the Davis-Stirling Act contained a proposed Chapter 2, Member Bill of Rights.  It was quickly removed and has not been adopted in the new law to become effective in 2014.  Nor does she present the homeowner advocates proposed homeowners bill of Rights published in the now defunct AHRC website and the AARP version written by David Kahne in 2006, among others.

It should be noted that in 2008 the Uniform State Laws Commission adopted a bill of right for UCIOA (UCIOBORA), but did not incorporate it was a part of UCIOA.  Rather, they created a separate version so that states can choose to adopt its so-called bill of rights or leave them out.  To date, no state has adopted this bill of rights.  It reads like your CC&Rs and pro-HOA state laws.  Nothing at all like the US Bill of Rights or the state Declarations of rights.

If HOA Land is to join the union and lose its independent principality status, thereby providing constitutional protections to the homeowners,  then Beth Grimm and all other CAI legal-academic aristocrats should be demanding the amendments to the Declaration  and state laws as proposed in my Declaration above,

The association hereby waivers and surrenders any rights or claims it may have under law and herewith unconditionally and irrevocably agrees 1) to be bound by the US and State Constitutions, and laws of the State within which it is located, as if it were a subdivision of the state and a local public government entity, and 2) that constitutional law shall prevail as the supreme law of the land including over conflicting laws and legal doctrines of equitable servitudes.

Why aren’t they?  The above state law and mandatory Declaration amendments will put an end to the jokes and word games that attempt to hide the fact that HOAs are de facto but unrecognized governments operating outside the Constitution. And there will be a bona fide Bill of rights!

 

[i] The Rights of Man, Thomas Paine, 1791; The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1793, French revolution origins)

HOA board education or indoctrination?

Donna DiMaggio Berger of Florida’s CAN HOA advocacy group wrote about the increasing numbers of board members seeking to be educated in HOA matters and in the affairs of HOA-Land (Do most Condo & HOA Directors want to be educated?).  I agree with Donna that these private government officials need to be educated, because unlike pubic government officials there is no long term infrastructure or institutional culture to guide them. 

Neither are there the penalties against wrong-doing as we have with laws holding public officials accountable.  Yes, not only must these private officials be properly educated, but be held accountable, too.  But, accountability is not discussed.

Sadly, in regard to the educational materials, the pro-HOA believers and groups ignore the fact that the “teachings” are really indoctrination courses into how to behave in HOA-Land under its unconscionable and oppressive adhesion contract, supported by pro-HOA laws and top-down UCIOA covenants. The materials flow from the pseudo-educator, the national lobbying trade group, which seeks to maintain the inequities of the HOA legal scheme.  They teach “how to behave as a good HOA member and avoid financial and emotional stress, and the good chance of losing your home if disobedient.”  And that is, is to follow the rules and to participate under procedures that thwart participation by “outsiders.”

There is no presentation of constitutional issues, of 14th Amendment violations, of the fallacies in the “consent to agree” argument, of no clean elections laws or of unacceptable due process procedures as a few examples.  Not even a discussion of the validity of my Truth in HOAs Disclosure Agreement argument.  Not even an invitation for attendees to proclaim their US citizenship status by signing the Declaration of US and State Citizenship form.

And why not?  Why aren’t these issue made public and taught by the great HOA educators?  Maybe, just maybe, as Col. Jessup shouted out in the movie, A Few Good Men, “You can’t handle the truth!”   Why are they afraid of the truth?

Legislative protection of HOAs: replacing US organic law with HOA organic law

Organic law is the fundamental basis of a government. The Homes Association Handbook and UCIOA constitute, in my view, the organic law for HOA governed planned communities. In contrast, the U.S. Code defines the organic laws of the United States to include the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance, and the U.S. Constitution. (US Statutes At Large, 1789 –1875, Vol. 18, Part I, Revised Statutes (43rd Congress, 1st session), p. v and vi). The organic laws of HOA-Land are replacing the organic laws of the US as applied to local government.

 

Arizona protectionism

How many times have homeowners sought justice before the legislature only to be told that they have recourse to remedy any slights by “voting the bums out”? Yet, when the time came to put some teeth into fair elections laws for HOAs, laws that would allow a fundamental function of a democratic government to work properly, the Arizona Legislature answered with a resounding NO! (21 – 9 final Senate vote on HB 2160). Where is the justice?  And justice is the hallmark of a legitimate government.

 The Arizona Legislature, for the fourth or fifth year, obstinately refused to tell HOAs hands off regulating public streets, even with respect to parking cars protected by municipal ordinances. Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio, who on numerous occasions vehemently stated that he upholds all the laws, rejected policing public streets in HOA-Lands. SB 1113 died, and HB 2030 is sitting in limbo waiting for a floor vote for final acceptance.

 As of this date, only 2 bills of the 19 HOA bills were sent to the Governor, and one was vetoed as “too confusing” for the HOA board to deal with. HB 2484, which was amended by the conference committee to make it more HOA attorney friendly, which means more homeowner unfriendly, is now a “NO” bill.  Of the 5 Arizona HOA bills in this session that provided for penalties against the HOA governments, none were found acceptable: HB 2160, HB 2484/SB 1468, HB 2455, HB 2731, and SB 1240.

 

The HOA can do no wrong

 It is quite evident that HOAs are de facto state-protected “sanctuaries” — de facto independent principalities by the failure of legislatures to pass enforcement bills against HOA board violators. The HOA is treated by the legislature like the sovereigns and kings of long ago – the HOA board can do no wrong, no need for checks and balances, and no need for accountability. It appears that the HOA boards have become Godlike in the eyes of the legislators!

And everywhere the public interest people, the legal-academic aristocrats and current day Philosopher Kings, who clamor for individual and private property rights see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. It appears that, “unaccountable HOA government is better than public government with its protections,” has become their dogmatic principle. The Goldwater Institute promotes local government by means of restrictive covenants. “A model law authorizing a transition from government-controlled local zoning and planning regulations to private restrictive covenants.” (See the 2011 report, Model Legislation, Decentralized Land Use Regulation Act).

 

The social contract is disappearing

 It is not too difficult to realize that this country has been on a regressive, slippery slope path to a governmental system very much like the rejected Articles of Confederation of some 225 years ago — that loose collection of colonies that our Forefathers rejected as unworkable. And it appears, with the rhetoric abounding here and elsewhere on other constitutional issues, we are rejecting the social contract and returning to a state of nature. The Social Contract (“Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains”) of Rousseau and John Locke has been slowly falling by the wayside, little by little.

The social contract theory of government maintains that individuals unite into political societies by a process of mutual consent, agreeing to abide by common rules and accept corresponding duties to protect themselves and one another from violence and other kinds of harm. The US Constitution and all state constitutions are examples of the social contract theory, as opposed to the various HOA statutory Acts that are based on the Uniform Common Interest Act (UCIOA). UCIOA has served for state laws in a handful of states, while other states have modified it somewhat and still others used it as a basis for their statutes.

 The initial UCIOA of 1984, revised in 2008 with a questionable separate and detachable model Bill of Rights Act, flowed from The Homes Association Handbook of 1964, that joint effort by FHA, ULI (formerly the National Real Estate Foundation), and NAHB. (The Handbook was prepared with the “collaboration” of such entities as, the Veterans Administration, The Office of Civil Defense, and the Public Health Service).

 

 

How did it happen?

 Milton Mayer best describes what is happening in America when he sought answers as to why the good, average people of Germany let the Nazi Party take control prior to WWII. His words are applicable to today’s HOA-Land.  In 1995, in They Thought They Were Free, he wrote,

 

What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little . . . . This separation of the government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and insensibly, each step disguised. . . . [Mayer believed that the good people went along] in the usual sincerity that required them only to abandon one principle after another, to throw away, little by little, all that was good.

Welcome to the New America of HOA-Land

 

And you’d better believe it!

Was I wrong in 2006 about CAI and HOA independence?

My research into the historical role of CAI can be found in the 2008 The Foundations of Homeowners Associations and the New America, “Part II, The National Lobbyist for HOA Principalities.”  Part II is subtitled, “Community Associations Institute: Dominating the Emergence and Acceptance in America of a Quiet Political Revolution in Authoritarian, Contractual Private Local Government.”   It was primarily based on the 2005 book, Community Associations, partially funded by CAI and ULI and written by Donald R. Stabile. 

I concluded Part II with,

In short, CAI has been setting itself up as the national private authority, a sort of Board of National HOA Governors, on local community governance through the adoption of uniform planned community acts that perpetuate the current anti-American HOA governments.  In effect, the super, privatized agency to replace the US Constitutional system of government.

This was written back in 2006, before the 2008 revision to an eBook and the 2010 addition of Part III. 

The subsequent acts and actions by CAI include the behind the scenes support for imposing and promoting   the top-down, “one law fits all,” UCIOA laws for adoption by the states.  Its subsequent acts and actions also include positions taken before state legislatures over the years that support and reinforce the denial of due process and the equal application of the laws for HOA members.  And there is CAI’s performance as presented in CAI continues to ignore the Constitution for the HOA constitution that clearly makes the case for CAI’s rejection of and secession from Constitutional government.

Some may call such behavior, seditious.

I don’t think I got it wrong.   

Reference

Seditious:  “Given to or guilty of engaging in or promoting sedition.”

Sedition:  “Conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of a state.”